I always do a large herb garden. They all do well. I also do some pepper plants: thai, pimento and some other small peppers.
Tomatoes don't do well because I do not have enough sun. But if you have sun, use a pickle bucket and a tomato plant should do really well.
Best of luck

I've bought live plants from The Chile Woman (http://thechilewoman.com/) for several years, and had good results with her hardened seedlings (it helps that they're only as far away as Indiana). She has a huge variety of chiles, tomatoes, and is about the only place that sells tomatillo seedlings that I've found. Quite a number are marked as good for patio or container growing.

Prices are NOT cheap, but quality is high.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

I'm not too much of a gardener, but Gethsemane Garden Center in Edgewater seems like a nice place. Probably not the cheapest, but probably cheaper than Old Town, and it's huge, and every time I've been there, the staff have seemed really nice.

jpeac2 wrote:Want to go out and either get some seeds or seedlings today.

Where should I head? I live in Lakeview area. I wonder if that place in Old Town is open (although I am guessing I would pay a fair premium there).

I think you're in for dissapointment if you plant today. We're likely to get another freeze or two before it's all over. I wouldn't recommend planting until at least the end of April...and that's pushing it (unless you have some sort of greenhouse arrangement).

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Steve Z.

“Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.”― Haruki Murakami

My official rule for planting outside is Mother's Day in May. You can start seedlings as early as february and get them ready. If you really want to get started and add some color to your balcony what will work now are Pansies. There are many beutiful varieties and colors...Gethsemane Garden Center in Edgewater has them now. Best of luck.

We planted three kinds of basil, some dill, and parsley, plus there are cilantro plants coming up from where last year's crop went to seed. And we have a perennial oregano plant. We don't have enough sun for tomatoes or cukes which is sad, because I like growing veggies.

When you pick your containers, think about how quickly pots will dry out in full sun, even faster if your deck is windy. That's the main thing I remember from container gardening (we're in actual dirt now).

My garden is up and running. I found some interesting seeds at a nursery near Harpo Studios on Randolph. They were lettuce leaf basil...from italy the package was all in italian. I planted a huge tray and they are all coming up. We will see...

I searched but didn't find any comments about where to find inexpensive large container pots for tomatoes and other veggies. We put our seedlings into 12" diameter pots for now, but they will quickly outgrow them. Adams & Sons (by our home) has 1/2 barrel pots for about $30. Anyone find anything of comparable size for a better price? I hate to shell out about $200 for six large pots if I can get them for maybe $10-20 somewhere else...

Thanks!

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- Mark

Homer: Are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon? Ham? Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

Last year, I bought some large plastic containers that actually looked pretty good at Costco fro about $20-30 each. I know they had something similar at the LP one a few weeks ago but haven't been there since. Since they are plastic and hollow (or insulated), they don't dry out as fast as terra cotta. Good luck.

If you do some looking around in discount stores, you should be able to find the giant composite pots (the faux-stone ones) on the cheap. I've seen uthem at Wal-Mart, AJ Wright, Family Dollar...but unfortunately not consistently in any one of those places.